EXCLUDED FROM BUDGET, STERILIZATION VICTIMS FOUNDATION
SUSPENDS INTAKE OF VERIFICATION REQUESTS161 Victims in 57 Counties Now Verified as Number of Likely Living Victims Declines

RALEIGH – Due to the joint budget agreement to exclude funding for compensation for victims of the state’s
former Eugenics Board program, as well as continuation funding for operation of the N.C. Justice for Sterilization
Victims Foundation, the Foundation today suspended intake of new victim verification requests.

The House approved legislation earlier this month that reflected Gov. Bev Perdue’s call to pay $50,000 lump sum
compensation to living victims, as well as funding for the Foundation’s continued operation and expanded outreach.
House Speaker Thom Tillis this morning restated his personal support for House Bill 947, but added: “There is a
very strong message from the Senate that they are not prepared to take it up this year.”

Foundation Executive Director Charmaine Fuller Cooper said the Foundation must curtail intake requests because
its current operational funding is scheduled to expire on June 30, the end of the fiscal year. Other operational
matters will be addressed soon.

The Foundation today confirmed an increase in the number of verified victims, which counts 161 individuals in 57
counties, including 146 living victims. Fuller Cooper said the increase reflects cases of multiple siblings and entire
families being sterilized.

Fuller Cooper noted that time is not on the side of aging victims. An updated estimate from the N.C. State Center
for Health Statistics this month revised down the number of likely living victims from about 1,500 to 2,000 to about
1,350 to 1,800.

As of today, Lenoir County, where the Caswell Center is located, continues to have the highest number of
verifications with 24 matches to N.C. Eugenics Board records. Mecklenburg, which had the highest number of
procedures of any North Carolina county, follows with 13 verifications, then Wake with 11. Among the Top 10
counties, Buncombe and Scotland continue to have no matches to date.

Note that counties with increased verifications from the last update in April are highlighted in bold.